United Nations Publishes 2017 Global Cybersecurity Findings

The United Nations has released the 2017 Global Cybersecurity Index, measuring the commitment of 193 member states. Overall there are signs of improvement and strengthening across the board – but there are a few key areas of struggle.

The Index measures 25 indicators across five pillars: legal, technical, organizational, capacity building, and international cooperation

The top 10 most committed member states, based on their collected scores:

Singapore – .92

United States – .91

Malaysia – .89

Oman – .87

Estonia – .84

Mauritius – .82

Australia – .82

Georgia – .81

France – .81

Canada – .81

The results point to the most ideal ecosystems for cybersecurity where laws, organizations, cooperation, and other factors must work in harmony to be truly effective. The index also points out:

“Cybersecurity is not just a concern of the government but also needs commitment from the private sector and consumers. Thus, it is important to develop a cybersecurity culture where citizens are aware of the trade-off between risks and monitoring when using electronic networks.”

Other highlights:

Only 38% of countries have a published cybersecurity strategy, while another 12% have one under development

61% do have an emergency response team with national responsibility to respond to a computer emergency, but

78% don’t have any metrics in place to measure cybersecurity development on a national level.